Why I love...

When I was four years old, my uncle won a photography competition with a picture of me peering round the gatepost cheekily holding up a half-peeled banana. I've always loved bananas: nature's wonderful non-drip fruit with their saucy shape and cheerful colouring.

Those days of innocence, blonde pigtails and unselfconscious, pre-braces smiles may be long gone, but I remember still the feeling of disappointment when, prize-winning photo in the bag, my uncle strolled back over, casually took the banana from me and ate it himself. I've never really forgiven him.

Now old enough to buy my own bananas, I have in recent years discovered the joys of their close relative, the plantain. Although I did manage to eat one raw by accident when I first arrived in Africa (my husband still teases me for thinking it was a "big banana"), this is not to be advised. Plantain may resemble big bananas but they are best cooked, and like potatoes, you can boil, fry or roast them. Packed with potassium, fibre and vitamins A and C, plantain are good for you - and can be as cheap as five for a £1.

Plantain get sweeter the riper they are, so buy them for immediate cooking when the skin is largely black and they feel soft to the touch. Cut the plantain into three pieces and boil until soft (15-20 minutes), removing the skin after cooking; or skin, slice and shallow fry them, preferably in palm oil, until brown; or peel and roast them (whole or sliced) in the oven at a high temperature. You can even thrown them on the barbie - crack open a bottle of Nigerian Guinness to complete the "authentic" African experience.

Although I've never had a prize-winning picture taken of me holding a plantain (and, let's face it, probably never will), I can say without doubt that they are now as essential to my fruitbowl as their smaller, paler cousins.